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BTW, Framed was pretty fun, the levels get harder and more complicated. It looks like you can play it over and over but not sure how fun that will be, even if the puzzles are slightly different (panels that are static change each time, etc.)

Even though I've downloaded every frickin one since I started, I don't actually use any of them. I figure I have a nice, emergency stash of games, but the type of game I actually want (4X, or something equally complicated) doesn't get AotW love. Or iOS love for that matter.

I'm not much of an app ranger. I use the official Reddit app, Transit for public transportation, Waze for driving, GrubHub for food, Peapod for groceries, and, and... that's about it.

I use a couple default replacements (WeatherBug and PCalc), but I put those in a different category.

Rebuild is restoring civilisation after a zombie attack. The first Rebuild is turn by turn - the sequel (called Rebuild 3 - I think Rebuild 2 was a straight port) is real time with free pause. I quite like it, although admittedly I have burned out on it by now.

Civ Rev got a sequel, Civ Rev 2, which got good reviews, but got critizied for not changing too much. I never actually picked it up. It is thankfully not EA. It's Firaxis which is owned by 2K these days. (They did make one game for EA a long time ago, though). I don't think Civ Rev gets updated continuously. It appears to be Sid Meier's private show, and that guy is in his sixties and mostly acts as a game designer emeritus at Firaxis to guide new developers into making games.

The Master of Orion license was sold after the THQ bankruptcy and is now controlled by WG Labs, mostly known for free-to-play games like World of Tanks. They made a relaunch which is basically MoO 2 with new graphics, and I was hoping for an iOS version, but it doesn't appear to be happening.

The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.

Everybody says it's great.
I gather it's fundamentally about resource management.
What makes it stand out are the emergent moral decisions one has to make.

I never picked it up because it didn't look like it had enough fiddly bits. I like fiddly bits.

By way of contrast, Starbase Orion has the requisite ship design subsystem, and a friggin awesome automated build queue editor. To me, when done well, those types of things are often almost as fun as the game itself.

Rebuild is not SimCity. It is clearly a strategy game. It's not a strategy game that is going to match the full Civilization, or something like Crusader Kings or Europa Universalis, but it is strategy.

Basically, you control a few city blocks in a city that is mostly overrun by zombies, and only simple barricades separate you from the hungry hordes. You have a very small number of survivors that you can give jobs to make your little community grow. The basic jobs are soldier (defend the barricades or attack a nearby block to clear it from zombies, so it can be added to your settlement), builder (build barricades to enclose a previously cleared area, or convert buildings inside your territory), scavenger (scout the rest of the city for supplies - food, weapons, building materials), and leader (convince other survivors that you find to come join your settlement). Later on you can also assign scientists to research, engineers to build ammo and traps, teachers so your fresh recruits don't have to go out there unprepared, etc. The balance is to have enough space for people to live somewhere, food so they don't starve, entertainment so they don't pack up and leave, all while hopefully not dying from a zombie raid. Interspersed into this are little quest lines where you have to make decisions on all sorts of issues. I don't know that 4X is the perfect description either, but the sequel clearly moves in that direction, with a deeper tech tree and multiple other factions that you can communicate with. The sequel also has a campaign with hints of old RTSes like Starcraft. The only game it is similar to is a very old game called King of Dragon Pass, if you ever played that.

The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.

I feel like there's actually some similarity between this type of game and old-school, rules-as-written D&D.

Few actually played it this way, but the best description I have for it is a logistics simulation. Exploration uses up torches and food. The more thorough the exploration, the more these supplies get used up, and the more likely the party attracts wandering monsters, which uses up your HP, spell slots, and red-shirted loot carriers. Need to rest to build HP and spells back up? Eat more food, use more torches, and expect a pile of wandering monsters outside the door.

Of course Rebuild's logic is a bit twisted because they want to have living space as a limiting factor. An apartment building can house two people, IIRC, and the farms don't house anyone. OTOH, the farms do seem to produce enough food for a lot of people in the same limited space. It's still a fun game, though.

The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.

Perhaps not precisely 4x, but definitely a gem, Battle for Wesnoth is free and open source.

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